Chapter 13: Moved In

"Did you give her the key?" I asked.

"I had to," Finnegan said through the doorbell. "She said she'd cut the lock with the axe."

"Then she can walk onto the roof any night she wants."

"She can, and I'll be on the stairs below it every night until I know why."

I sat on the edge of my tiny porch and looked at the dark hallway on my phone.

He was sitting on the floor with his back against my door.

I could see the gray in his hair under the one lamp he kept lit for me.

"Why do they want the roof?" I asked.

"I don't know yet."

"Then find out."

"I will," he said. "Maeve, go to sleep."

I did not sleep.

At seven the next morning, Declan's mother knocked on my sister's door with her clipboard and two men from 3112.

Britt opened it on the first knock.

She was gray in the face, and she had slept on the bare floor in her coat.

"The committee met again," the woman said. "Other floors have started asking about you."

"Asking what?"

"Whether you're for sale."

Britt flinched.

"A family on twenty-eight offered three weeks of rice for one week of your bread," the woman went on. "I told them no. You belong to this floor."

"I don't belong to anyone."

"You belong to us, dear. Pack a bag."

"I have nothing to pack."

"Then it'll be quick."

The two men stepped in and took the last thing in the apartment, a folding chair.

I put my hand over my mouth.

I had expected to enjoy this part.

Britt walked across the hall behind them, and Declan stood in his doorway with a smile ready.

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